21st to 27th December 2007 Brueggan, Germany
Unlike our last visit to Herr und Frau King when we could travel light and go by plane, this time we would be taking ours and everyone else's Christmas Presents. Santa wasn't prepared to lend us his sledge so we had to go by car.
To get there we needed to go to Hull, catch the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge, then drive the 160 odd miles through Belgium then Holland before arriving in Germany.
Getting There
The trip there was dead easy. There was no traffic on the way to Hull, the overnight ferry crossing was calm (but freezing if you went on deck) and made even better by the great all you can eat buffet.
We arrived in Belgium on time, rolled off the Ferry and set off to Germany (Drive on the right! drive on the right! drive on the right!)
It was a beautifully warm -7o in Belgium with a lot of thick frost but 3 hours of easy driving later we were through the Army Camp security checks and had arrived at the Kings residence.
Valkenburg Christmas Market
Valkenburg in Germany has an unusual Christmas Market. Unlike your normal market it is completely underground inside a whole load of caves.
So once David had finished knocking Harry over as we walked round the town, and after a nice warming drop of Gluwein we headed inside.
Inside it was surprisingly warm, or certainly a lot less cold than it was outside. As is often the case when we are with Pam and David, most of the things we bought were edible.
In a continuing quest for Gluwein the next day we went to Düsseldorf Christmas Market. This actually seemed to be several different Markets all ever so slightly different scattered across the town.
Despite them selling out of metre long bratwursts we did manage to find something to eat.
If you are wondering about the above, don't! Its a long standing tradition that Kev and David have.
Turns out that each Gluwein stall sold a different type of cup to drink it from which prompted a wide and lengthy search to find the best one. Personally I think the snowman shaped one won the day.
Christmas Day
As we have done for the last few years now, we opened "Santa" presents in the morning.
We had been telling Leah for months that you couldn't get a Nintendo WII anywhere.
This would of been true, unless you happened to know people that lived in......say......Germany who could get one for you! She may have been quite pleased when she opened it.
After Santa had been suitably thanked we got on with the important matter of preparing and eating Christmas Dinner.
Kev had set the video camera to record the excitement of the day, but rather than make you sit through the whole thing, below is a nicely speeded up version.
Going Home
We set off for home on Boxing day. Its probably not a surprise to know that the trip back was the reverse of the one there with another overnight crossing on the ferry.
The big difference this time was we had paid for a better cabin that not only was at the pointy end of the ship, but had its own window (I know, the luxury of it all)
Kev passed the crossing by seeing how fast we were going (32mph) and where the ship was on his Sat Nav, whilst Tracie looked nervous about the roughness of the sea. Some of those waves were getting on for 3 maybe even 4 inches high!!
Cost of going sausage side again
As we already pay to off-set the crap that comes out the back of our cars so, for once, we didn't need to do anything extra for this 510 mile round trip.